At BIF9: Stacy Pearsall, combat photographer in Iraq

After her brain injury, combat photographer Stacy Pearsall had to reinvent herself. She stopped asking herself "What can I do," she says, and began asking "What can we do together?"

maria caporizzo Journal Multiplaform Editor mariacap

After her brain injury during her second tour in Iraq, combat photographer Stacy Pearsall had to reinvent herself. She stopped asking herself "What can I do," she says, and began asking "What can we do together?"

Shifting from active duty to being a veteran, she says she found a lack of care for women specifically.

"There is this hole in our society about what we perceive veterans to be," Pearsall says.

Pearsall's Business Innovation Factory presentation included a video, she said, because it helps keep her on track given her brain injury.

She said she started the Veterans Portrait Project because she had only ever been a combat photographer, and 27, it got the camera back in her hands.

She's focused on giving people the tools they need to feel better about themselves. She asks, "What can we do collectively to help others?"